Innotech-Execaire, which is located in Montreal, is a large Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul provider and completions center for all large corporate aircraft. They operate a business jet repair facility in Montreal that does heavy maintenance, structural repair, avionics and interior furnishings and green aircraft completions for Challenger and Global Express series aircraft. The only thing they lacked for a complete one- stop facility was an exterior paint shop. They opted to build a new facility near their current property at Pierre Trudeau International Airport (Innotech-Execaire) that would be used solely for exterior painting. This facility is designed to be a world-class painting facility and it uses the latest Gen-5 paint booth technology for aircraft painting hangars. The market area Innotech Aviation serves is North America, as well as a worldwide clientele, which establishes Innotech as a global paint facility. The fact that it is designed to paint Global Express aircraft just underscores the international nature of the business.

The paint facility is equipped with two bays. One bay is used as a prep bay where masking, sanding, stripping and detail work are performed. The other bay is used as a paint facility where paint is applied with a spray gun. It can also be used for masking and striping of aircraft. The facility was sized for a Bombardier Global Express BD-700 aircraft. The dimensions of the aircraft are 94’-0” wingspan, 99’-5” length and 24’-10” height at the tail. The usable dimensions of the paint facility are 118’ wide x 114’ deep and 28 ft high. This gives ample room around the wingtips and nose and tail to move stands around for painter access. The paint bay has a penthouse over the empennage that adds some headroom for the painters. Mr. Marc Savoie was hired to be the manager of the paint shop. He had previously been a supervisor at Bombardier. He has a crew of 16 painters and helpers to perform the work. Currently, this is a one shift operation that can complete about 30-35 paint jobs in a year’s time. This can vary depending on the complexity of the scope of work. Innotech Aviation will do simple striping and full paint jobs. There are plans to increase to 2 shifts of operation and to run a seven-day schedule to cycle 2-3 times the number of paint jobs. This future plan envisions the workforce at 50 employees.

This article originally published in: Air Maintenance Update, November 2009